1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to networks, and more particularly, to systems and methods for implementing dynamic subscriber interfaces in such networks.
2. Description of Related Art
In many networks, subscribers to network services, such as, for example, cable network services, can be aggregated into a shared medium, such as, for example, gigabit Ethernet, to provide specified services to the subscribers. To provide differentiated services for each subscriber, a service provider may pre-configure the allocation of resources based on the static Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with each subscriber. However, since re-usable address pools are typically used in such networks, such a static allocation of resources would be highly wasteful of network resources. The static allocation of resources to subscribers would also make standard industry practices, such as service over-subscription, impracticable, since not enough resources would be available to allocate to all possible subscribers. Additionally, even assuming enough resources could be made available to statically allocate resources to all subscribers, the sheer volume of allocated resources would ensure that managing the resources would be an overwhelming task, especially considering that only a small fraction of the configured subscribers would ever be using the system at the same time.
Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods that can dynamically allocate resources to network service subscribers in a network device.